Building Floor Vibration due to In-Building Speed Bump

Abstract

Building floor vibration can cause discomfort to the occupants or worse structural damage to the building structure. This paper presents a study on unwanted building floor vibration induced by an in-building speed bump, which was observed in a vibration root cause investigation made at a high-rise commercial building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Some of the findings of the root cause investigation are presented, which leads to the conclusion that the installed speed bump in the in-building parking lot is the main source of this unwanted floor vibration. The impact force exerted when a vehicle hits the speed bump is found to be sufficient to trigger the building resonance. The building floor vibration is explained through analysis of measured vibration signals, side car model, and finite-element analysis. It is shown that the floor vibration level depends on vehicle parameters, i.e., weight and speed, and speed bump parameters, i.e., dimensions and location. Possible vibration mitigation approaches are given.